Whether taking measurements with various instruments
out on the Tomoka River, seining in the Ponce Inlet, or measuring sand dunes,
getting to make hands-on experiences out in the field was one of my favorite
parts of this course. Additionally, being able to admit to and learn from
mistakes was a real relief. Usually being concerned about errors and wanting
everything to be 100% perfect, I would've probably done so much planning I
would have never made it out into the field for my project; instead, I feel
like I got to jump into the deep end and, even though at times I was probably
doggy-paddling around, with time my methods will improve and I'll be swimming
like [insert name of Olympic swimmer of your choice]. At least I didn't sink.
:)
I've discovered I am not a fan of identifying
organisms, so even though travelling to the rainforest and discovering new
frogs sounds really cool, I've come to terms that being a biologist is not
something I want to be. Also, I'm still not a fan of FL weather. During one of
my first couple blogs I complained about the heat and several months later it
is still 83⁰F- in
December! At one point I figured I'll just limit myself to working in a lab...
...however, the most important thing I learned from
this lab is that I do NOT want to limit myself! This lab gave me a sense of
direction. Looking back at other courses I should've realized it sooner but it
seems I always have a tendency to choose pollution when I get to pick my own
topic, whether it be finding a possible correlation between carbon monoxide and
cancer for my GIS project or the environmental effects of cat litter for my
ENC1101 research paper. Further, to me the statement "I want to be
scientist (of any caliber)" always
sounded like a crazy proclamation such as wanting to be a movie star like
Johnny Depp, or a best-selling author like Dean Koontz, or an architect like Gaudi
- I think you get my point: it sounded like a one in a million chance. However,
through my project as well as the incredible encouragement of Dr. Woodall and
some of my classmates, I have the courage to "shout" it out loud: I
WANT TO BE AN ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMIST...just not necessarily in FL. :)
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